Veterinary hospitals and clinics in New York and across the nation are understaffed and overwhelmed, struggling to meet demands excerbated by the effects of the pandemic.

Some locations are requiring appointments to be made five months in advance. Others are unable to accept new clients at all.

Ashley Jeffrey Bouck, CEO of the Hudson Humane Society, said she has seen an increase in pet owners reaching out for care.

"It’s very hard to make sure we’re fully up to staff like a private practice. We have received a lot of calls from our community asking if we provide services because it is such a wait to get in," said Bouck.

A study by Mars Veterinary Health estimates 75 million pets in the U.S. will go without health care because of a need for 41,000 additional veterinarians by 2030.

The shelter does offer services like microchipping and vaccinations, but is limited in what it can legally provide.

"Unfortunately, if they are sick, to know that there is that long of a wait period to get in, you worry about things getting caught at a later stage," said Bouck.

Experts in the veterinary field said, other than an influx of people who adopted pets during the pandemic, there is also the issue of burnout.

"All of a sudden, the case loads increased exponentially, to a level we were really struggling to keep up with," said Lexi Cartier, a veterinary technician for an emergency clinic in Saratoga County.

She said working through the pandemic was not only exhausting, but traumatizing.

"Particularly within the emergency clinics in the area, we were getting all the overflow from the local vet offices, which we typically do, but it was just even more at this time. And then we had people coming up north that don’t even live here, that don’t have a local vet, so they’re coming to us," said Cartier.

She said two years later, it hasn’t gotten better.

"We try to joke with each other and have dance parties while we’re waiting for the blood to spin down, something to keep us going, but now they don’t smile," said Cartier.

But unlike her colleagues, Cartier had a short break. At the height of the pandemic, she received her masters degree in social work.

"We talk a lot about the mental health troubles in the field because they’re pretty severe, significant and common," said Cartier.

Even with the new veterinary graduates expected over the next 10 years, a shortage of nearly 15,000 veterinarians will likely still exist by 2030.

Cartier said another issue of burnout is that vets are overworked and underpaid.

"We have the same amount of debt as a medical doctor, but nowhere near the same kind of salary," said Cartier.

Despite that, she plans to stick it out a little longer, and feels for pet owners who are equally as frustrated.

"I just ask that people have a little grace and understand that this pandemic has impacted everybody," said Cartier.